Jo'burg

Arriving after an epic journey, it was a relief to be outside after the expanses of shiny floors and tiny compact plane seats. All in all we’d been on the go for about 28 hours, with a long wait in Charles De Gaulle airport, with no cash or wish to spend in Prada, Dior and other such fancy money grabbing boutiques. In flight entertainment kept me happy on the 10 and a half hour flight but not really managing to get any sleep so we were all in a rather elated but delirious state when we were greeted by Peter Stark’s open arms.

As we were a day behind with our packed itinerary we got straight in our minibus, with a smiling driver Paul, for a whistlestop tour of Jo’burg. From one of the highest points in the city we had a panoramic view. Covering the gold reef, the mine dumps on the edge of the city, the posh houses of the white middle classes with an amazing amount of security and razor wire surrounding them, and the city centre from a distance. We drove into downtown Jo’burg, and whizzed around the centre and the cultural area in Newtown. Still a bit too dazed to rtake it all in.. but so happy to be here and the sun is shining....